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I have been a reading machine lately. This is partly due because I had a class that required us to read a book a week, but I have also managed to sneak in a few I wanted to read, too. This can only mean one thing around here-

It’s time for a book review!

I read these:

Oh, and this, too-

But I only recommend the following that I will give reviews for:

I’ll start with fiction because I just love fiction.

A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness was really, very good. Her website gives this description:

When historian Diana Bishop opens a bewitched alchemical manuscript in Oxford’s Bodleian Library it represents an unwelcome intrusion of magic into her carefully ordinary life. Though descended from a long line of witches, she is determined to remain untouched by her family’s legacy. She banishes the manuscript to the stacks, but Diana finds it impossible to hold the world of magic at bay any longer.

For witches are not the only otherworldly creatures living alongside humans. There are also creative, destructive daemons and long-lived vampires who become interested in the witch’s discovery. They believe that the manuscript contains important clues about the past and the future, and want to know how Diana Bishop has been able to get her hands on the elusive volume.

Chief among the creatures who gather around Diana is vampire Matthew Clairmont, a geneticist with a passion for Darwin. Together, Diana and Matthew embark on a journey to understand the manuscript’s secrets. But the relationship that develops between the ages-old vampire and the spellbound witch threatens to unravel the fragile peace that has long existed between creatures and humans—and will certainly transform Diana’s world as well.

This book is to be a part of a series. I was very happy to read that after I finished this book because there was so much left up in the air. The book is excellent! It appeals to the magic, vampire nonsensical side of me, but it is very intelligently written. Try it out!

Sail by James Patterson is a page turner. I think all of his are, though. If you want a quick read that you don’t want to put down, then pick this book up. Here’s an exert from his website:

Only an hour out of port, the Dunne family’s summer getaway to paradise is already turning into the trip from hell. Carrie, the eldest, has thrown herself off the side of the boat in a bid for attention. Sixteen-year-old Mark is getting high belowdecks. And Ernie, their ten-year-old brother, is nearly catatonic. It’s shaping up to be the worst vacation ever.

Katherine Dunne had hoped this trip would bring back the togetherness they’d lost when her husband died four years earlier. Maybe if her new husband, a high-powered Manhattan attorney, had been able to postpone his trial and join them it would all have been okay….

Suddenly, a disaster hits–and it’s perfect. Faced with real danger, the Dunnes rediscover the meaning of family and pull together in a way they haven’t in a long time. But this catastrophe is just a tiny taste of the danger that lurks ahead: someone wants to make sure that the Dunne family never makes it out of paradise alive.

I also thought The Anxiety Cure would be useful for someone suffereing from panic attacks and severe anxiety. This book attempts to describe the physiological etiology of such issues while also addressing the spirituality issue that many secular theorists and psychologists ignore.

The rest were not so good. Ha! I’ll try to do these more often so as not to bombard you with a bunch of titles.